This invention relates to machine tools, and more particularly to those of the kind in which work is machined while being submerged in a body of a machining liquid such as mineral oil or an aqueous solution thereof in the form of an emulsion. Still more particularly, the invention pertains to a streamlined machine tool system including facilities for hydrodynamically loading the work in position and unloading the finished product by utilizing the machining liquid.
Electric discharge machining or electrospark machining represents a conventional art of submerged work machining. It is a process by which materials that conduct electricity are removed from a metal by an electric spark. The discharge machining apparatus has required dedicated mechanical means for the loading and unloading of work as well as for the recovery of the chips or cuttings created by machining. Such mechanical loading and unloading means and chip recovery means have made the complete machining system inordinately bulky in size and expensive in the cost of installation. Indeed, in some instances, the total cost of such additional means has been just as high as that of the apparatus used solely for discharge machining.
Another consideration that should enter into the design of any streamlined machine tooling system is how to make the finished products clean of the chips and particles attached thereto. This is usually done by rinsing the products. The rinsing process comes after the machining process. However, the products need not necessarily be rinsed immediately after having been machined. For this reason the rinsing means have usually been installed separately from the machine tool at the cost of additional space requirement.